“The word of the day, the word of the age is partnership,” said Farmer. “We're all interconnected. We'll never have a successful downtown if we're ringed with neighborhoods that are not successful.”

Candidate Tim Kabat said partnership with the business community will be key.

“I've got some ideas that I would like to work on including business round table meetings where we sit down with the business community and talk about issues and talk about the challenges, and really try to again work together as public private partners to help grow our region,” said Kabat.

But Brockmiller said either way, something needs to be done to lower the unemployment rate.

“Where we are in this recovery (with) this slow steady increase, it’s where we can expect to be, but in the long run we need to be lower,” said Brockmiller.

Brockmiller said finding a way to lower the rate grows the economy in more ways than one.

“To get more people jobs is the most painless way to for government to raise revenue,” said Brockmiller. “It really is because more people (will) pay taxes without raising them. More people can afford houses, more people can afford a new washer, so there's more sales tax.”

Brockmiller said he expects February's unemployment number to be similar to January's.

He thinks the rate will fall back down once the weather starts to warm up.

Even with a rise in the unemployment rate, the La Crosse metropolitan area still ranks second to Madison for having the lowest unemployment rate in state.